President Donald Trump tested Covid-19 negatively and was not infectious to others, the White House physician said last night, 10 days after President Trump announced that he had contracted the coronavirus.
In a White House memo just a few hours before President Trump was due to resume campaign rallies, Dr. Sean Conley said the President had tested negative on consecutive days using the Abbott Laboratories BinaxNOW antigen card.
Dr. Conley said that negative tests and other clinical and laboratory data "indicate a lack of detectable viral replication."
President Trump's medical team has determined, based on data and guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that "the president is not infectious to others," Dr. Conley said.
He still hasn't worked out when President Trump's last negative test was before he was diagnosed with the virus.
President Trump returned to the campaign trail last night with a rally in Sanford, Florida, his first since he announced on October 2 that he had tested positive for Covid-19.
His evening rally at Sanford Airport began a three-week sprint on election day as new polls show him losing more ground to Democratic rival Joe Biden in two battlefield states that could decide on the November 3 contest.
Critics blame President Trump for failing to encourage campaign supporters and even White House staff to wear protective masks and comply with social-distance guidelines.
At least 11 close Trump Aids tested positive for coronavirus, with more than 34 people falling ill in the White House cluster.
Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony Fauci, leader of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, has condemned Mr. Trump's campaign for using him in an ad where he appears to endorse the US President's handling of the pandemic.
Dr. Fauci appeared in the ad to praise President Trump, saying, "I can't imagine anyone could do more."
The ad said, "President Trump is recovering from the coronavirus, and so is America."
But later, Dr. Fauci said, "I have never publicly endorsed any political candidate. Comments attributed to me without my permission have been taken out of context from a broad statement I made months ago on the efforts of federal public health officials."
President Trump, however, rejected the doctor's criticism, saying, "They are indeed Dr. Faucis' own words."
The doctor, considered to be America's leading expert in infectious diseases, has a high public profile with the Americans.
President Trump publicly deplored the fact that the doctor's approval ratings compared him favorably with his own.
